Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1887-05-19
WESTERN SNOW-SLIDES.
According to Colorado Man They Sur
pass the Avalanche of Switzerland.

According to a Colorado Man They Sur
pass the Avalanche of Switzerland.
One can pick up almost any book of
travel and find in it description of an
avalanche in Switzerland, but I've
never seen any satisfactory attempt to
picture the terrible grandeur of Colo
RADIO snow-slide. The two are the
same thing. but the snew-slide is more
awful and destructive than the ava
lanche. 1t has better chance to show
what it can do, by reason of the num-
Der of mines which are worked in the
pathway of the slides, and the care
lessness of the miners in exposing
themselves to danger and disregarding
the warning signs the sky and the snow
always give before the slides begin.
The most fearful slides occur during
the winter, after succession of bright,
warm days. The mountains are heavily
loaded with snow, which has fallen in
layers, and frozen until it lies solidly
in mass from five to twenty feet
deep all over the range, and in can
yons and gulches fifty feet sometimes.
The sun melts these layers, they lose
their hold on those below, and start
down the mountain, often with IA, 900
feet to travel before they reach the
bottom. AS they go down other
layers of snow become detached,
and the slide increases In weight and
velocity as it falls. A slide seen from
distance is only white cloud, but it
is cloud weighing hundreds of tons.
Trees are bent and snapped in pieces,
huge rocks are uprooted and carried
along, and a house in the way of the
slide is buried and carried away like a
Leaf. Nothing but a mountain will
stop slide before it hurls itself
against the level ground and losses its
momentum. Last winter the death
list in consequence of snow-slides was
light in Colorado. believe the miners
are learning to be cautious. The
most destructive slide remember was
one that came down upon the Sheridan
and Mendoza mines near the top of the
range that rises above Ouray. 1t ear
ried away the kitchen and bunk-house
of the men, and covered fifteen miners.
Some who escaped came down to
Ouray on snow-shoes over perifous
trail, running nearly all the way along
precipices, and overhung with cliffs,
bearing trembling masses of snow
threatening other slides. They begged
us for help to dig out their imprisoned
comrades. We sent a party up on
snow-shoes Immediately, eight of the
nerviest men in the camp. They got
up to the mines safely and dug out the
bodies and two live men. Then they
put seven of the dead men into sleds,
back to Ouray, a party OF
fifteen. They were half way down
when another slide came down on the
trail and swept away sleds, corpses and
rescuers. There was space fifty feet
wide from the trail to the brink of a
canyon, over eighty feet deep. Some
of the men were released by the snow
before they were carried to the edge OF
the gulf, but most of them, with all the
sled-bearers, went over and down upon
the deep snow at the bottom. Not one
of that party was killed, although they
were somewhat bruised, and they all,
singly or in small parties, made their
their way back to Ouray within the
next three days. The corpses lay EN-.
balmed in the snow until spring. when
the thawing of the snow made them
visible. They were then brought down
to Ouray and buried. -Ouray (CoI]
Cor. ST. Louis Globe Democrat.